AltaVista
loreThe search engine that led the web before Google, built at DEC as a way to stress-test a processor.
Launched 15 December 1995 with an index of sixteen million documents and full Boolean search, at a time when the alternative was a hand-maintained directory. Its owners then rebuilt it as a portal to compete with Yahoo, which meant competing on everything except the thing it was best at. Sold to Overture in 2003 for about six percent of its valuation three years earlier, and shut down by Yahoo on 8 July 2013.
Also known as: alta vista, altavista.digital.com
Sources
- AltaVista publicly launched on 15 December 1995; the shutdown of 8 July 2013 is carried by two contemporaneous reports cited on the page
- Grokipedia: AltaVista - the DEC Western Research Laboratory origin